Method of feeding young mammals and feed materials for use therein



United States Patent or rrpnnso YOUNG FE D MATERtALS QR use H Damon V; Catron, Ames, Iowa, assignor to Iowa State College Research Foundation, Inc., Ames, Iowa, a ornate at w No Drawing. Application October 20, 1955 Serial No- 541,846

This inyention relates to a method of feeding young mammals and to feed materials which are adapted for practicing, themethod. ,More particularly, this invention is concerned with the method of feeding baby pigs and with baby pig feed materials.

The raising of begs for meat production is a large national industry, and is particularly important in certain areas of the country, such as in Iowa where more than 20,000,000 hogs were produced in 19.54. The national production of hogs is now approaching 100,000,000 head per year. Gonsequently, it is not surprising .that during the past decade. extensive research on improvements in the me hods of. producinghogs for market have been'diligently carried out, and these eiforts'have resulted in such important contributions to swine nutrition as the use of antibiotics and vitamin B in hog feeds and the recent deyeloprnent of the practice of early weaning. There is still, however, a marked need forfurther improvements in hog feeds'and feeding methods. 0n the average, feed costs represent 80% of the total cost of hog production. Thus, if the amount of feed required to produce a. pound of pork can be reduced, which is sometimes referred to as an increase in feed efiiciency, the production costs will be significantly reduced. Savings can also be effected by ncre s n hev a e o we gain so th t the hogs can b fin she o. a mar e a l Wei n a s rt r time, t eby re cin an e en costs and p m t n a l g r nu b r o bass t be P odu e pe yea fo given q ipme investment;

One n t w a a ea of o odu o wh h c nt ed p ese t a P ob em s the m ement of a y P s f om birth o o 0, weeks of age h der practice was to allow the baby pigs to nurse the sow until 8 or 10 weeks of age. This resulted in a relatively inefiicient feed utilization, since the feed hadto be first fed to the mother hog to produce milk for the baby pigs. This method of raising pigs on' sows also produced a heavy loss of baby pigs. In the past, about one-third of all live pigs farrowed died from some cause or other before they were weaned at 8 to 10 weeks of age. Current estimates still place this figure as high as 2 on the average, Moreover, the baby pigs that survive usually weigh only n'5m"'2s to 3O pounds at weaning age (8 weeks); The development ofsyn-thetic liquid for baby pigs was one approach to this problem, but the high costs of syn: litiq milks lld h diff cu ty o ve i t eir din an a q smsi ma th m i racti n t aw e ailtma fiiv r me t Sta on. found t s e 9 Ween as a ear ac k if a e d t teed ha a dr ritioriall y-balanced ration called a pig rersta rter. .i t e rast it owed of letting h pigs are and supplementingthe sows, mill; with a so-c'alled g starter 'in'a creep from 1 to 8Weeks of age. The

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whether fed as all or. part of the pigs. ration, constitutes the special subject matter with which the. present invention is concerned. Thus far, while present. baby pig feeds have been found to be useful and desirable, there is still considerable room for further improvement.

It is therefore a general object of this invention topro: vide an improved method of feeding baby pigs. and int-.- proved feed materials for. use. in such amethod. More specifically, it is an object to. provide a method and a means of raising baby pigs whereby their rate of weight gain and/or their feed .efliciencies can be substantially increased. Further objects and advantages will appearv as the specification proceeds.

This invention is. based in part on the discovery that baby pigs of less than 8 to. 10 weeks .of. age have-in: complete enzyme systems. The enzyme. systems of such pigs appear to be deficient in amylolytic, proteolytic, and lipolytic enzymes. Baby. pigs of less'than. 5 weeks of age are a ke ly defic ent in p o eo y i enzymes I have further discovered that these enzyme deficiencies canbe ompen a ed. for r spectively by. incorporatingin thebahy p dma e l active concentrations of amy oly c, m:

, 7 1W? d l po yt n ymes. Sugh a procedure tends tov ive an ncre s i the rat of weight a ls in he GQd. @fi q and these. arethe important considera: ion i on he s andpoint o hog p o n- The use of piqtsol is a d/9i amy clyt enzym s in this. way is es: ps iai y des rable In one'of its aspects, inyention relates to a method 915 a s n ho s wh rein the b by pig p or p 8 to 10 w ks 9? a e o 5.0 poun s at bo y. weight are. ted at eas parti qn a s ar -con in ration. ln accord.- i s w h i inventi n a ive on nt ation of an m lql s enz e i r ra d. n the sta h-con a n: in attan nti hen t ra on is ted to. h babypigs. sim fl a d Preferab wit bab -r s pr r t 8 t Wee o e 9? 5 wad qt ssvue ht, an activ a cefitration t a rro sa ie en yme i i coipo at d in a ialqnt ni s rati zi a s sd t the. baby p gs, Fur: he? amifia t oas 9f. he Present in n ion wi e b d us ed- In p act da th r ss atiavsati n baby pigs wea d at 5 unds at b wei h or he vie (o 1 week o ds s age), nu t t nsl b lanssd fee of t 01: n ene al m os n an b GENERAL FORMULATION n ediea s e es? Ve e able Pratsin ,09 .61 A fi18-lPII l i 5129 Q fs a sh) --f 1W8? Su ars. s o e d xtr se e as gs l 2- .2.0 Sa ir o uni i n ifiti swth ast l se t9 Fat dded) a ogoj zo f. 9 iil tfatand t s lub Q Ant t s a senal r anthems- I t ul l assess e able.-- -Forexample, 1% of pancreatin may be used to provide both the amylolytic and proteolytic enzymes. Pancreatin is an extract of animal pancrease glands containing principally amylopsin (amylolytic), trypsin (proteolytic), and steapsin (lipolytic). Other lipolytic enzymes may be substituted for the steapsin. Commercial enzyme preparationsat the level of 1%, such as Mycozyme are suitable. Mycozyme is a'fungal or mold en zyme concentrate distributed by Paul Lewis Laboratories of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Specifically, it is derived from cultures of Aspergillus oryzae and contains amylase, maltase, protease, peptidase, lipase, phosphatase, invertase, and sulfatase. Enhanced benefits may sometimes be obtained by certain combinations, viz., 1% pancreatin with 1%'pepsin, 1% pepsin with 1% animal diastase, 1% pancreatin with 1% Mycozyme, etc. I The various enzymes and enzyme combinations suitable for use in practicing this'invention will subsequently be discussed in greater detail. e

' Feeding of-rations formulated as described above and containing added enzymes can in many cases be advantageously continued until the pigs reach an edge of weeks or older. Improved results are particularly marked from 5 to 50 pounds of body weight or during the period of approximately 1 to 8 weeks of age. 'Diets high in dried skim milk (e.g., 40%) tend to give diminishing returns, and therefore enzyme feeding is especially advantageous in connection with vegetable proteins and starches. However, significant improvements have been obtained with casein-cornstarch diets and soya proteinlactose diets. Casein alone is improved. It should also be noted that rations prepared according to this invention can be used as creep feeds while the baby pigs are still being nursed by their mothers (sows) or as only part of the complete diet after weaning.

With regard to specific ration formulations, it will be understood that the relative proportions and kinds of proteins, cereal grains or their by-products (containing mostly starch), fats, etc. will be related to the known nutritional requirements of baby pigs. These requirements vary with age. As baby pigs grow older, less protein and more carbohydrate-containing ingredients will normally be incorporated in the ration. For example, at'the age of 1-2 weeks, the crude protein level could be to at 2- 5 weeks, 16 to 18%; at 5-8 weeks, 14 to 16%. This may permit the amount of proteolytic enzyme additive to be correspondingly decreased and thepermissible decrease is assisted by the developing enzyme system of the animal. Conversely, the starchcontaining ingredients of the diet will usually be. increased, starting with as little as 10% at 12 weeks to as much as 80% at 8-10 weeks. For example, corn or other cereal grains may form well over half the diet from 5 to 8 weeks of age. Therefore, the offsetting effect of the animals, developing enzyme systems will tend to be less pronounced with regard to starches under normal feeding practices. Consequently, it may be desirable to increase the amount of amylolytic enzyme added to the ration as the pigs grow older (until their amylolytic enzyme systems are fully developed) and are fed a higher proportion of starches.

As already indicated, this invention contemplates the incorporation in' a starch and protein-containing baby pig ration of an active concentration of an amylolytic enzyme and. a; proteolytic enzyme. Since corn or other material containing starch are basic feed ingredients for pigs, amylases are especially desirable. If the starch has been partially or completely dextrinized or if the formula contains certain sugars, the amylases will also be of value. The hydrolysis of glucosides and disaccharides can be promoted 'by the incorporation of gluoosidases. These may be rather specific, such as the maltases, sucrases, invertases, and lactases. More generally, various oarbohydrases can be used. In addition to the protein- 4 ases, it may be desirable to include peptidases. Most proteinases only hydrolyze proteins to the proteases, peptones, and peptides.

In addition to the enzymatic materials already mentioned, a number of commercial enzyme preparations having proteolytic and/or amyloly-tic activities are suitable. Among the proteases are Rhozyme A-4, P-ll, B-6, as well as Protease 15, all manufactured and sold by Rohm & Haas Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While these enzyme preparations are primarily proteolytic, they also act on starches, with the exception of Rhozyme P-ll which contains no diastases. Rhozyme B-6 and Protease 15 are of bacterial origin and the other products are fungal enzymes. Another primarily proteolytic enzyme product which is suitable for use in the present invention is Bromelain, manufactured by the Paul Lewis Laboratories of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bromelain is a mixture of several enzymes derived from pineapple juice :and contains proteolytic enzymes. Ficin, produced and sold by Merck & Company of Rahway, New Jersey, may also be used. It is a proteolytic enzyme occurring in the latex of tropical trees.

Instead of animal diastase or amylopsin, various bacterial diastases can be used with benefit. For example, Rhozyme H-39 (Rohm & Haas) is a suitable heat stable bacterial diastase. Other enzyme products having an amylolytic as well as a proteolytic action have already been listed. For example, enzyme mixtures having both amylolytic and proteolytic properties can be obtained from moldstrains of Rhizopus and Aspergillus. Similarly, amylolytic and proteolytic bacterial enszymes are produced by strains of Bacillus mensentericus. Amylases can be obtained from B. macerans, B. polymyxa and B. subtilis, suitable strains being selected for the desired purpose.

In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the suckling pigs are weaned at individual weights of about 5 pounds and are then fed over a period of at least three weeks a nutritionally-balanced dry or liquid feed ration containing a proteinaceous material as a principal ingredient in combination with a suflicient amount of a proteolytic enzyme to hydrolyze a substantial portion of the proteinaceous material. This feeding is continued until the pigs have individual weights of about 50 pounds. Following the same procedure, the feed mixture may contain a suitable amount of an amylolytie enzyme, and this is especially desirable when the feed material contains a substantial amount of starch or other starchy materials such as ground corn, oats, wheat or barely. For example, the ration may contain ground corn and soybean protein as the principal ingredients. Generally, vegetable proteins and starches may advantageously be used in combination with proteases and amylases.

' The procedure for practicing the present invention and the benefits obtained thereby are further illustrated by the following specific examples.

EXAMPLE I The baby pigs were weaned from the sows at 6 to 10 days of age, depending on body weight, age relationship and started directly on the dry experimental diets. Baby pig management as described by Speer et al., Iowa Farm Science, 8:103 (1954), was followed. They were selffed dry rations and watered automatically. All pigs were weighed and the feed consumption recorded weekly. The rations were mixed weekly to minimize the possibility of enzyme inactivation by other feed ingredients. The 3 2 basal diets for the three experiments were as follows R t t 2 5 k G in ib ation trea men a w a BASAL DIETS lb. wt.,lb 1b. gain,

I 7 I, 5 s lb.

Experiment I ng edi n H p M .7. 0 19. a .12. a 2. 1s EX. I EX. II EX. III 1 22 9 I 15 8 1 74 Drackett C-l assay protein a 29. 7o 29. 70 2a. 70 DL-methionine 0. 10 0.10 0.10 {I 53?};255235 3.2.5: each Total 16 8' 2 Includes 20% lactose. See Ex. I. 36.46 21.36 3%. 33 Twp pigs med? 0.00 20.00 2 Di-calcium phosphate. 3. 95 3. 95 3. 76 PART 3 Calcium carbonate 0.66 0.66 0.89 Trace minerals (CCC 35'D-10) 1.63 1. 63 1. Initial Feed, (I?) 50 Ration treatment wt., Final Gain, lb. Vitamins an 0.40 0.50 0.50 lb 1b lb in Lard (stabilized) 2.50 2.50 2.50 r gi b Gr. dried beet pulp. 2.00 2.00 2.00

100m 00 1) Basal ration 28.0 47.0 19.9 1.94 I E'ercent crude protein 25 20 3 55 9943511111175 P 28 1 47 7 19 6 1 84 a Purified soybean protein containing 83.1% crude protein. (When dried skim milk, casein or other proteins were included, tilt-31018 21179 guantitiesof' Drackett protein and sugars were altered'to ma ntain a constant protein level.)

' b When dried skim milk was added, lactose was not included.

a Te'cmangam 2.453%; FeSOflH O 11.06 8%; copper carbonate 0.085%; cobalt sulfate 0.059%; zinc sulphate 0.553%; magnesium sulphate 30.437%; maggiesiugl carbonate 0.922%; potassium sulfate 54.418 KI (Ca stearate 0104 Calculated analysis per pound of diet: Vitamin A 5000 I .U.; vitamin D 1000 I.U.; riboflavin 5 mg; pantothenic acid 10 mg.; niacin 30 mg.; choline chloride 450 mg. Added per pound of diet: Vitamin'B 20 meg; folic acid 9 rncg.; thiamin 5 mg; pyridoxine 2 mg; para-ammobenzoic acid 8 mg; biotin 20 meg; inositol 250 mg.; alphatocopherol 10 mg; Menadione 3 mg.; ascorbic acid 300 mg.; chloretetracycline 50 mg.

The results of the first series of tests are summarized below in Table I:

Table I Initial Rela- Feed/ Feed Ration treatment I vvt., 5 wk. Gain, tive lb. saving,

I lb. wt., lb. lb. gain, gain, percent percent lb.

(1) Basal ration. 6.3 19.2 12. 9 100 2.24 0 (2) Basal with 20% lactose;' 6. 3 21. 4 15.1 117 2.06 +8 (3) Basal+1% pancreatiu V (ULS.P.) 6. 4 21. 4 15.0 116 2.01 +10 B Five individually fed pigs per treatment. b Average initial age=8.0 days.

EXAMPLE II Further tests were conducted following the procedure described in Example I, the results being summarized below in three parts:

1\ Single pens of 5 pigs each. Total 20 pigs. b Initial age=7.3 days. a Includes 20% lactose. See Ex. I.

Replicated pens of 4 pigs each. Total 16 pigs. b Initial age=53.4 days. 14 days on test. 0 Includes 20% lactose. See

EXAMPLE III The results of further e tperiments are summarized below: A

T able III 5 wk. Rela Feed/ Feed Ration treatment I! wt.,P Gain, tive 1b. saving,

1b. lb. gain, gain, percent percent lb.

(1) Basal ration 14.2 8.4 2.82 0 (2) Basal +1% pancreatin d U.S.P. 16.3 10.0 119 2.41 +15 (3) Basal+1% pepsin (1:

3000) 16. 2 10. 4 124 2. 20 +22 (4) Basal+ 1% pepsin +1% pancreatin 16. 8 10. 8 129 2. 18 +23 (5) Basal plus 1% papain 16. 6 10.4 124 2. 36 +16 (6) Basal plus 1% Mycozyme B 16.8 10.8 129 2. 31 +18 (7) Basal incl. casein 19.9 13.9 1. 70 +38 (8) No. 7 plus 1% pepsin plus 1% pancreatilL 21. 4 15.6 186 1.60 +43 (9) Basal plus 40% dried skimmilk 19. 9 14. 0 167 2. 06 +27 B Two replicated pens of 4 pigs each per treatment. Total 72 pigs.

b Average initial weight and age=6.0 lb. and 8.6 days.

Includes 20% lactose. See Ex. I.

6 Two pigs became unthrifty during experiment and were removed.

Q Mold enzyme concentrate of Paul Lewis Laboratories, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, containing both amylases and proteases.

f Casein added at the level contributed by 40% dried skimmilk.

Statistical analysis of the above data gave the following results:

(1) Casein diets produced significantly (P=0.05) heavier pigs at 5 weeks of age on significantly (P= 0.05) less feed than Drackett protein diets.

(2) Average eiiect of all enzyme additions to Drackett protein basal diets significantly improved feed cfiiciency (P=0.05).

EXAMPLE IV this experiment, involving 80 pigs, animal diastase wasted at levels of 0, 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0% alone and in combination with levels of fungal amylase fedat 0, 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0% alone and in combination. These were added to a basal diet similar to that used in Example II, except casein replaced the Drackett C-l assay protein and cornstarch comprised the source of carbohydrate. The addition of 1% animal disastase improved gains 31.6% and saved 34% of the feed required to make these gains. The addition of .10% fungal amylase improved gains 4% and improved feed efiiciency 22.1%. When a combination of 1% animal diastase and .1% fungal amylase was fed, daily gains were improved 75.9% with 7 a feed saving of 64.6% over the pigs fed the basal diet without the addition of enzymes.

EXAMPLE V Further tests were conducted following the procedure described in Example I. The basal diet was similar to Example I. The results show that the addition of 1% pancreatin to such a diet increased gains 21% and saved 20% on feed. When this soya fraction protein was hydrolyzed enzymatically with 3% pancreatin (3 x USP) at a pH of 7 for six hours at 40 C. and then was drumdried at 120 F., and when this pre-digested soya fraction was included in the basal diet, relative gains were increased 148% with a saving of 120% on feed required. When the same soya fraction was pre-digested in the same manner, except for 24 hours, gains were increased 175% with a feed saving of 123% when compared with performance of the pigs on the basal diet. This demonstrates the improvement of vegetable protein by enzymatic hydrolysis. Some degree of improvement in vegetable protein can also be expected by plain chemical hydrolysis without using the enzyme. The tabulated data appears basal d1et (2) Basal diet plus 1% pancreatin 6. 4 9. 8 3. 42 +21 4. 88 (3) Pancreatin predigested I soybean traction protein for 6 hrs 6.3 13. 3 6. 98 (4) Pancreatin predigested -soybean traction protein for 24 hrs 6. 2 13. 9 7. 76

I Includes 20% lactose.

b Initial average age 13.2 days (final average age 36.2 days). 4 ration treatments.

3 replications (pens)/rati0n treatment.

4 pigs/pen.

48 total pigs.

Many variations in the procedures described above would fall within the scope of the present invention. For example, the starch material employed in the feed ration can be any of the various edible starches or starch-containing food substances and is not limited to corn starch. Other grains or cereals and their starches may be used, as well as root starches like potato starches. Many foodstuffs of vegetable origin contain both starch and protein and can therefore be used to supply the nutritional requirements of both types of nutrients. While vegetable proteins like the protens in soybeans can be used in the feed rations with particular advantage, milk proteins and meat proteins are also suitable. Among the variousprotein sources that can be mentioned are meat scraps, fish proteins (fish meal), peanut oil meal, cottonseed oil meal, copra, etc. The starches and proteins, moreover, do not need to be in their original form as found in nature, and can be altered in various ways including partial or complete chemical and/ or enzyme hydrolysis to the respective component simple sugars or protein degradation products. For example, starch might be partially or completely dextrinized, and some of the dextrinized material might be broken down further to glucose. Similarly, the proteins might be partially hydrolyzed to proteoses or peptides, and these hydrolysates further hydrolyzed, in part, to amino acids. This can be accomplished by treating protein or starch-containing food materials with various suitable enzymes for accomplishing the desired hydrolysis, such as amylolytic enzymes and proteolytic enzymes like those described above, and then feeding the treated material to baby pigs in accordance With this invention. This is demonstrated in Example V. Chemical hydrolysis of proteins or starches can also be used while realizing some of the advantages of this invention. Further ramifications of this invention include the use of lipolytic or cellulolytic enzymes respectively'with edible fats and vegetable celluloses in a manner similar to that described for the proteolytic and amylolytic enzymes. The present invention has been described with particular reference to baby pigs, but it is not necessarily limited to this use. More generally, it is applicable to young mammals including particularly dogs, cattle and sheep during the period when the baby animals would normally be fed on the natural milk of their species. When the enzyme systems of the animals are incomplete, this invention provides a means for correcting such deficiencies and/or supplementing and intensifying the action of the natural enzymes.

Additional ramifications and variations in the present invention will readily occur to those skilled in the art, and it is therefore the intention to have the present disclosure interpreted as broadly as it would be by a man skilled in this particular art.

I claim:

1. A growth-accelerating feed for baby pigs, comprising a nutritionally-balanced baby pig feed composition containing an undegrated proteinaceous material as a principal ingredient in admixture with an active proteolytic enzyme, said composition being finely-divided and in a dry, free-flowing cond tion, whereby said proteinaceous material is substantially stable in the presence of said proteolytic enzyme.

2. The feed of claim 1 in which said proteinaceous material is of vegetable origin and in which said enzyme is pepsin.

3. The feed of claim 1 in which said proteinaceous material is derived at least in part from milk and in which said enzyme is pepsin.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES Skorkov, U. A.: Nutrition Abst. & Revs. 15, #900, 1945.

Hastings; Poultry Science 25 (1956), pages 584-6.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,906,621 September 29, 1959 Damon V, Gatron It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should readas corrected below.

Column 8, line 39, for 'unclegrated" read unde-graded Signed and sealed this 12th day of April 1960.,

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL H. AXLINE ROBERT C. WATSON Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A GROWTH-ACCELERATING FEED FOR BABY PIGS, COMPRISING A NUTRITIONALLY-BALANCED BABY PIG FEED COMPOSITION CONTAINING AN UNDERGRATED PROTEINACEOUS MATERIAL AS A PRINCIPAL INGREDIENT IN ADMIXTURE WITH AN ACTIVE PROTEOLYTIC ENZYME, SAID COMPOSITION BEING FINELY-DIVIDED AND IN A DRY, FREE-FLOWING CONDITION, WHEREBY SAID PROTEINACEOUS MATERIAL IS SUBSTANTIALLY STABLE IN THE PRESENCE OF SAID PROTEOLYTIC ENZYME. 